Meeting Report – 4th May 2017

Our meeting this evening was well-attended with plenty of energy and an air of expectation as we waited for the results of the Club Election.

Vinu did well in the Hospitality role, welcoming guests and members alike.

Our Sergeant at Arms, Neil, arrived to set up the room and bring the biccies. Susan was busy setting up the projector and arranging props for the speakers She also found time to give training on EasySpeak to a new member.

Neil opened the meeting and then handed over to our President, Paul Andreas. Paul told us about a seminar that he had just attended the evening before with Mark Brown, the 1995 World Champion Speaker. Mark had shared some excellent tips about how to write and deliver a speech. Details of future events in and around London can be obtained from www.thelondonspeaker.com

Our Toastmaster for the evening was called Paul. His name is Paul Goodhill.

Paul G introduced his team. Christine was the Timekeeper, Simon the Ah Counter and Vitu the Grammarian.

Our Timekeeper, Christine, explained her role and then proceeded to do a great job of keeping us to time.

Jenny Taggart led The Warm Up. The question was: “What musical instrument would you like to be and why?” This got some interesting responses from double bass to harp and grand piano to trumpet.

Neil gave us a Hot Tip, which was, “Don’t say no” and revealed to us that he had just starred in a TV interview – he was famous for seven seconds!

Our first speaker was Alex Clarke with speech #3 from the Entertaining Speaker Manual called “There’s No ‘I’ in Team”. Alex entertained us with a dance from The Office TV programme and gave us some great advice on how to survive boring office meetings – by playing Buzzword Bingo.

Next was Jenny A with speech # 6 from the CC Manual called “”Can You Give That Speech” Jenny shared her journey from a shy, hesitant 8 year old to a confident teacher and Careers Guidance Officer and revealed that, despite having had a lot of experience in public speaking, she had learnt a lot in Toastmasters and was still learning.

Tony Smith gave speech # 10 from the CC Manual, the Inspirational Speech. Tony entertained us with tales of bravery as he described the work of the RNLI

The three speeches were then evaluated by John C, Sue S and Richard G.

After the break Bryony led the Table Topics with some great questions about “World Book Day”. We got some interesting and entertaining answers. Richard Murray wanted to be Ratty from the Wind in the Willows, Alex expounded the virtues of book shops and being able to explore book shelves, Alain informed us that the 10 hour film of Lord of the Rings did justice to the book. Simon Maggs gave a preference for physical books and defended the value of printing emails despite receiving criticism at work. Susan Rayner enjoyed maths and figures rather than reading books etc. The number of Table Topics ensured that every member was given an opportunity to speak during the meeting. Well done, Bryony!

Eddie Barnes then evaluated the Table Topics and had us in stitches with his great humour. Well done, Eddie. We hope to see you in the Humorous Speech contest in September.

Our General Evaluator for the evening was Vinod, visiting us from Coulsdon, who shared some useful comments with us.

Our President, Paul Andreas, presented the Awards. Simon Maggs won the Table Topics award for his entertaining speech about libraries and emails. Richard Green won the Best Evaluation Award for his evaluation of Tony Smith’s speech and Tony won the Best Speaker Award.

Richard Murray, Chair of the Nominations Committee, then led the Club elections. Everyone on the Nominations Report was voted in unopposed.

Paul A then drew the meeting to a close by welcoming our two latest members, Chi and Alexis. This brings our numbers up to 50. We have a lively, vibrant club which people want to join. However, we must cap our numbers now, otherwise there will not be enough roles and speech slots for existing members. Guests who would like to join have begun to be put on our waiting list that John C is compiling.

A big thank you to all those who took on roles, gave speeches and helped to make the evening a great success.

Dates for Your Diary

Division Conference and Contest at Southampton on 6-7 May.

Extra meeting at The Shortlands Tavern on 25 May 2017. Sign up for a role before they all go.

Annual Dinner on 6 July when our existing Committee will handover to our new Committee.

Congratulations to our new Committee!

Those elected are:

President: Susan Rayner

VPE: Simon Maggs

VP Membership: Margot Glover

VP Public Relations: Alexanderz Kirykowic and Bryony Hall sharing the role